Jan 22, 2013

Weberman Being put away for 103 years!

If you think the big news of the day is the Israeli elections, you are only partially correct.

the really big news of the day is the sentencing of Nechemya Weberman for the abuse and molestation of a young girl in his care. He was found guilty a few weeks ago, and in the sentencing today, Judge Ingram handed down a sentence that was just short of the maximum possible - Weberman got 103 years of jail out of the 117 that was possible...

Definitely a big blow to him, abusers and their supporters everywhere, and hopefully it will be a strong message and deterrent for the future..

Rafi u so hit the nail on the head here, that this is a blow to the supporters as well.

Not just the 'aggressive' supporters, but the 'passive' ones as well. Passive supporters are those rabbonim, askonim and organizations that for so long have either blamed the victim or have refused to acknowledge that sexual abuse is a serious problem.

Most importantly, the whole world knows now just how mishandled frum orgs have been in handling these cases. And justice was done in spite of these rabbonim, without their help and without the rabbinic 'say so'that some orgs would have you believe (erroneously) needs to happen.

I have read extensivly about this case. I'm still unconvinced that he is as guilty as charged, though I believe it was a grevious error on behalf of satmar to send girls to a male counselour and on his part for not properly keeping hilchos yichud, by being above and beyond communal standards of propiety in dealing with this girl.

Moshe Moshel wrote: I'm still unconvinced that he is as guilty as charged ...

What would it take to convince you? He spent hours at a time in a locked room with a teenage girl. Leaving the girl's complaints to one side, the halachic presumption would be that he was "seducing" her. Why are you willing to stipulate that Weberman broke hilchos yichud, which should be yeharog ve'al yaavor, but he didn't actually do the very things which those halachos are meant to prevent?

I believe it was a grevious error on behalf of satmar to send girls to a male counselour ...

Why? I mean, you don't believe he was raping her; why do you think it was an error? Are Satmar girls more likely to accuse their counsellors of rape? Or do you think that no male counsellors should ever have a female client? Because in the secular world they handle this by, e.g., not secluding themselves with young women for hours at a time; not taking them on private drives; not buying them lingerie. The idea that all this could be innocent is simply laughable.

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About Me

I am a regular Joe with a Yeshiva background. I learned in Telshe Yeshiva, Heichal HaTorah (R' Tzvi Kushelevsky), and a now defunct Halacha Kollel. I have semicha from R' Zalman Nechemia Goldberg and kaballa in Shechita from Dayan Schwartz of Kehillas HaYeraim (Chomas HaKashrus). I have a college degree in Finance from Touro College and am also a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer.
My wife and I, with our 8 children, ben porat yosef (knayna hara), live in Eretz Yisrael.